Episode 14 - Disaster in Hatte

[Gambit01]

"What the hell do you think you'll accomplish by doing this, Nick?"

Nick took a deep breath; he couldn't very well ask Trent to trust him if he wasn't going to be truthful.

"There is a possibility Edward might be on that ship sir. Also..."

Nick took out his locket, sucking in a deep breath. This would be the third time he told his story; the first time for a connection, the second time for manipulation. Now, it was a plea.

Opening the locket, the melancholy tune accompanied Nick's tale of his family, his fiance', and of Celiene.

"Sir....I have to go," he almost pleaded.

[Psyden]

“I never said that the Federation was beyond redemption! But the Titans are! Are you so blind as to think that tyranny and oppression can be so easily forgotten?!? The Genocide of Colony 30 ended ANY hope of salvation for the Titans. Of course, what would an Earth-born elite know of the fragility of life in colonies? And I am no traitor! I never defected! After the War, I was given a medical discharge, or I WOULD HAVE joined the Titans before they became twisted!”

As she speaks, her head bobs slightly as her suit maneuvers, shifting the hair over her scar and unintentionally giving Gil glimpse of the ragged scar where her eye was.

She’s about to speak again when she sees Gil’s rifle begin moving into position. Celeste jerks hard on the controls, and the binders move to redirect their thrusters, but it isn’t enough. The first shot punches through the belly of her Dias, though the second sheers off armor more than anything. Gil’s downward slash is easy enough to parry. The near text-book execution of such a simple attack would be able to be blocked by most rookies, though it does tie up Celeste’s only saber as she circles around to Gils right. Pointing the Bazooka at him, Celeste fires and the round explodes almost as soon as it leaves the barrel. It will take nothing less than divine intervention to avoid serious damage from this close range. Something will likely be removed

As Celeste turns to bolt for the cover of the Shoal’s debris, Samantha’s first round strikes Celeste’s Rick Dias just below the armpit and tears its way out the left chest. The second round rips a chunk out of the suit’s right outside thigh, sending it into a spin. Slamming the controls, Celeste gains control of the spin and spirals her way out of it and into the debris field. After a few twists and turns, she finds herself on the other side of a Salamis hull, nearly ripped in half from some fearsome explosion.

With her back to the hull on the far side of the old cruiser, Celeste takes stock of her suit and her situation. Her suit has suffered severe structural damage. She won’t be able to maneuver as effectively now, but she’ll still be able to fly circles around anyone not accustomed to it. This is the Shoal from whence she drew her name. This is the Shoal where she earned her wings. And no Earthnoid will ever be able to match her in her element.

Come on, you bastard! Finish what you started!

[Cybaster]

Celeste was right on one thing; There was virtually no hope for Gilliarme against a Clay Bazooka shell at point-blank vicinity, and before he could pursue his advantage, Gilliarme was caught by complete surprise on the Clay Bazooka able to remove all safeties like it did --- the shell's pellets cut into armor, torso, and head like butter through knife, all but shredding the Marasai's front, and tearing the left arm and right leg off in addition to destroying the main camera, causing the secondary cameras to blaze to life.

But the most damaging hit was in the cockpit itself, as a piece of pellet shrapnel cut into the cockpit from the upper right, through the screen --- and into Gilliarme's left shoulder. As blood welled out of the wound, Gilliarme sneered and coughed, trying to ignore the pain of the wound and focus on the enemy at hand, the affected viewscreens compensating even as he did.

Forced back in this manner, Gilliarme could only back off, curse his own foolishness, and continue blazing his vulcans at the vulnerable spots at Celeste's Rick Dias as she pulled her own retreat. All Gilliarme's Marasai could do was pretty much float there afterwards as he hurriedly assessed his suit's damage --- with only a single arm and a Beam Saber, there was little he could do. But what else could he do here but whatever was left?

Heheh...You will never understand, Celeste...I will never take that easy path no matter what you say...and I never said...I *will* succeed...but I said I will *try*. Try...or die trying. Gilliarme muttered in thought, and as he did turned hurriedly to Samantha as Celeste disappeared into the shoal. It seemed she suffered considerable damage as well. "Let her go, Sam." Gilliarme gave a pause, fishing for a bandage to stop the bleeding --- and hoping that it didn't go out his back or he would be finished. He was otherwise watching Celeste and daring her to come back.

Gilliarme otherwise knew better; with weapons, armor and manueverability shot, his time on the battlefield was over --- Celeste Angelina had defeated and nearly killed him through a stroke of Fate. Was Providence really on the side of the AEUG? "I'll be fine. Just go help Shin."

[RGM-79 GM]

Shin sees the Dias dodged again and that something was fired at his Marasai's head. Since he had started boosting down the shot hits the antenna on his Marasai's head. Then some vulcans hit his Marasai(Don't know where you aimed them.) but don't really cause any damage. The enemy pilot fires a beam at him though so he has his Marasai boost up to avoid the shot but the left leg is hit and the knee and lower are shot off.

Shin then puts one beamsaber back into the recharge rack and pulls out his beamrifle again and aims at the Dias' center torso and fires a beam at it.

[Ascension]

Jim had ample time to react as the Marasai switched weapons. As soon as he saw which arm the 'sai was drawing the rifle with, he boosted to that side of his opponent (sidestepping past the rifle in the process) and slashed at the rifle with his beam saber as it was unsuccessfully fired.

[Wedge14]

Pan Heyden growled with laughter as the Musai exploded directly infront of him. Shrapnel and flames battered his nemo relentlessly. An arm was lost legs were lost a head was lost. Then it went dark and silent. Heyden's laughter cut short.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Inside The Shoal Zone -

- Team 1 -

Michiko was unprepared for the Zomel CO’s reactor breach, and she screamed as her suit was buffeted and battered by the explosion. Her monitors winked out in rapid succession and then tried to switch over to working channels, leaving her bathed in the flickering light of panoramic static. The beam pistol was damaged and exploded, taking the suit’s hand and forearm and leaving a ragged stump.

She fought the controls and found them all either completely unresponsive or useless. “H-help! Somebody!” she pleaded as her suit rolled onto its back and drifted away from the Hizack’s wreckage, “Please! ...Fritz!”. She was completely unaware of her only bit of luck; her mobile suit, while damaged and blinded, had been thrown back in the direction of the advancing AEUG fleet.

Fritz kept an eye on the remaining Hizack even as his beam saber plunged into his blinded target. As the survivor circled around his dead wingman to get a clear shot, Fritz saw past him in time to watch Michiko’s Rick Dias get toasted. “Damn it!” he thundered, tearing the saber across and out of the speared enemy as he pulled away. The surviving Hizack’s attacks streamed by as Fritz rocketed past him.

He bumped into Michiko’s Dias, grabbed it under an arm and kept moving, back towards the Dervish. Now that he was turned around, he could see Eddie’s-- well, Marvin’s-- suit. “You! Find the Nemo that was with us and tell him to fall back,” Fritz commanded, hoping the pilot could hear him. Even as he was potentially talking to himself across space, his hand reached over to bring up a view of Michiko’s cockpit. With his free hand he roughly pulled open the neck of his normal suit and pulled his helmet off.

“Michiko?” Fritz asked, leaning closer to focus on the blurry image on his HUD. Michiko leaned back against her seat and opened her helmet’s visor. “I’m okay...” she said, drawing her harms closer to her body. Fritz relaxed a bit and looked back across his view of space ahead of them. “We’re going back to the Dervish. You’re in no condition to fight and I’m almost out of propellant,” he said, steering them through a small dense section of debris as they headed back in the direction of the fleet and the battle around them.

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

“There goes another Musai,” Abbey muttered to himself as the Randarmel sank. He leaned forward in his command chair and ordered, “Wade, plow right through that wreckage. Our gunners can sweep that last Zeke ship out of the way,”. Next to him, Gates was still seemingly catatonic. Their sponsor still hadn’t spoken or moved since the heavy combat had started. Abbey hoped to God that the man wasn’t mentally broken, because he knew that whatever part of the 4th that made it back to Luna would have to answer for a hell of a lot.

Having Gates there to explain away his reasoning would certainly help. Still, he knew that even if Gates took as much of the “blame” as he possibly could, things would not be square with Wong and the others. The 4th would feel the effects of this debacle until the end of the war, whatever the eventual outcome might be.

“Dammit,” the captain grumbled.

[EZero8]

--Team 3--
--Wes Curren--

"Oh man... looks like you got your custom colors for a reason buddy," Wes muttered in frustration once the Marasai dodged his attack. In turn, Wes swerved to avoid Stukov's attack. At this point, the fight was beginning to get repetitive.

"If only I wasnt stuck on call with fire support..." he thought to himself, firing 2 shots at Stukov's Marasai. It was getting annoying to fight those red colored Zaku-looking machines...

[RGM-79 GM]

Shin sees the pilot dodge his shot and at the same time boost over to his right side and slice at his beamrifle so he has his Marasai let go of it and begin to boost back so that the beamsaber will hit the e-pac and cause the rifle to explode hopefully atleast distracting the pilot for a few seconds. While boosting back he has his Marasai pull out and activate his other beamsaber again.

Right after the explosion Shin has his Marasai boost over and slice at the arm holding the Dias' beam pistol with the beamsaber in his Marasai's left hand and ready to block the Dias' beamsaber with the one in the right hand. Knowing that if it only has one arm he could easily take it out with his beamsabers.

[Ascension]

Jim grinned when he eliminated the Marasai's ranged weapon. Now all he had to do was pick away at it from range with the pistols and it'd go down quick. His grin faded when the enemy MS came bursting through the explosion and slashed at his left arm. He tried to get it out of the way in time, and he managed to save the hand, but his pistol was ruined by the Marasai's blade. He boosted backwards firing his vulcans wildly, trying to buy himself a little time while he shifted the beam saber from his right to his left hand and drew his remaining pistol with his right.

[RGM-79 GM]

Shin sees the Dias get it's hand out of the way and fire it's vulcans at him but they do nothing to his Marasai's armor then he sees the pilot pull out the other beam pistol and he mentally curses. Then he boosts over to the Dias and makes it look like he will be slicing at it but instead boosts behind it as fast as he can, stoping right behind it, and slices at it's backpack.

[Cardi Doorl]

- Alexandria-class Kirov -
- Corridor -

Trent listened, his face set for a game of poker, as Nick related his story.

And then, as soon as Nick had concluded saying his piece, Trent grabbed the mobile suit pilot by the shoulders and pressed him against the bulkhead. He didn't apply much force, but the weightlessness of the environment would no doubt do its job.

"Nick," snapped Trent, "You can't help Ed nor this Celeine by running off and pretending to defect. The AEUG may be a ragtag unit, but they're not stupid. If, by some lucky chance, they don't see through you and opt to have you executed, they'll..."

Trent stopped himself from going on a tangent. Time wasn't something he could afford to waste. "Listen, Nick," he continued, this time more calmly, "You're thinking irrationally, letting raw emotion get the better of you. Use your head and look at the situation. Trying to pull this now will only get you, and probably others, killed in vain. Doing something like this requires careful planning and..."

Trent shook his head. His mind kept wandering, and with it his mouth. He'd almost fallen into another tangent. If only his brain and his voice were working together more effectively.

"Nick, you know as well as I do that the Ritters are up to something." There, he said it outright. If Nick turned out to be in the Ritters' pockets somehow, then Trent's days were no doubt numbered from that moment on. Trent found that he hardly cared anymore. "I can see that they have something grander, more sinister, than mere family prestige on their minds. You see it too, don't you? I don't know what they're planning, Nick, but they have their own agenda, they have a lot of pull, and I can't stand having to constantly look behind my back. I need someone on this ship who sees that they're playing their own side, separate from the rest of us. I can't sit idly by while one of the few officers I can trust rushes off on a wild goose chase."

- Mobile Suit Bay -

"Alright," called out the chief mechanic, "You Hades boys are good to go. Get the hell out of my suit bay so we can make space for those escape launches from your ship."

"Got it," grunted Picard as he finished off the sandwich he'd taken from the ready room's vending machine. He snapped on his helmet as he kicked off the floor to the open hatch of his headless Hizack. "C'mon, Miller," he barked, "Let's get moving. No time to waste!"

[Cardi Doorl]

- Beta Team -

Jacob narrowly escaped Wolf's saber attack, then moved "above" Wolf to fire. Wolf used the momentum of his saber attack to put himself into a spin, dancing past Jacob's hasty shot, then swerved hard upward. His Marasai was already customized to have greater performance than a Rick Dias, and already had the momentum of having already been accelerating forward (whereas his opponent had opted stop and move backward), so keeping up with the Dias was easy enough so far as Wolf maintained a general forward motion.

Clute fired as well, but was banking on Wolf not looking up. Since Wolf was indeed looking "up" to stay close to Jacob, he was able to continue his mad spin to evade those two shots.

Now Wolf closed in on Jacob yet again. Using his beam launcher as a club, Wolf swiped at Jacob's pistol arm to slap it away while simultaneously lunging with a beam saber stab.

-

Jack's beam rifle burned through the head of Alexandra's Marasai. Upon feeling the hit, Alexandra pulls at the controls in a near panic, allowing her to just narrowly avoid death from the beam pistol shots.

When her backup cameras came to life, Alexandra hastily scanned around to regain her bearings. She immediately noticed that Wolf's Marasai was being double-teamed by two Rick Dias units. Upon seeing this, all thought of that sharpshooter dissolved, and Alexandra's mind was singularly focused on protecting her Wolf.

"Stop!" she shrieked as she reoriented her mobile suit toward Wolf's fight, "I told you to leave Wolf alone!" Alexandra jetted toward the fight. She aimed for the Rick Dias further away from Wolf - Clute's - and squeezed a shot from her beam rifle.

- Alpha Team -

A one-on-one, face-to-face fight in relatively open space between two competent pilots can go on almost indefinitely. Not exactly willing to remain caught in such a situation, Stukov twisted his Marasai away from Wes' Dias. In doing so, Stukov allowed his opponent's latest shots streak by.

Stukov wasn't breaking off in a random direction, though. He was hoping to draw the Rick Dias into the ongoing clash between Shin and Slim Jim.

-

Jack's shot at Leandro was a hasty one, but it did its job. Leandro found himself too busy keeping himself out of the way of the shot to line up his own shot, and by the time he was steady again he saw that that Beta Team Marasai was disengaging that previously targeted Rick Dias.

"Coward," muttered Leandro at the apparently retreating teammate. Leandro quickly fired once again, then fired a few verniers to change his direction a bit.

- Delta Team -

The enemy Rick Dias, battered and heavily damaged, slipped away into the denser shoals. Gilliarme's Marasai, meanwhile, had been effectively crippled. "I'll be fine," asserted Delta's CO, "Just go help Shin."

Sam blinked, glanced over to Shin's Marasai (or she was pretty certain it was Shin's Marasai - there were several Marasai in the area, and Sam had certainly not kept track of Shin's), which was going one-on-one with a rebel Rick Dias.

"Don't get yourself killed." Sam found herself wanting to bite back the words as she said them, but it was too late. So she quickly added, "That Marasai can still be salvaged, after all."

With that, Sam kicked off some larger debris to take her into the less-dense area of the shoal where the bulk of the fighting was taking place. The first thing she noticed, upon approaching Shin, was that the junior grade lieutenant's beam rifle was out of commission, leaving him with only his beam sabers. Just as Shin tried to get a slash at the rebel's backpack, Sam moved up so that she was aiming at the Dias in profile. Thus, should she hit with her beam rifle, she wouldn't be striking Shin when the shot ripped through the enemy.

"Heads up, Shin!" she called out as she fired at Slim Jim's Rick Dias.

[Cardi Doorl]

- Musai Kai-class Zomel -
- Combat Bridge -

Being in the last remaining ship in the Republic of Zeon's 9th Expedition, the Zomel's skipper found himself compelled to make his rather vulnerable unit scarce. The last Hizack on Zomel Team was quick to scurry back to its ship, which set about trying to retreat into the thicker shoals. Its path, however, would have it running parallel to, but in the opposite direction of, the retreating AEUG ship formation.

"Get the main cannons ready!" shouted the skipper, "They'll be in clear view long enough for one volley before we're safely in the debris! We'll give 'em everything we've got to cover our move!"

[King Monkey]

Jacob's nightmare only continues as the Ace Marasai continues to pursue him. He briefly wonders what he's done to merit such attention, wondering if, perhaps, his first kill was this pilot's friend. The far more likely scenario, that he was simply the man's enemy and a convenient target didn't occur to him.

His pistol hand is swatted away before he can squeeze off another shot as the enemy mobile suit presses its advantage. He turns with the blow to keep from losing his last remaining weapon. The motion saves the power plant of his suit as Wolf's saber thrust neatly pierces the right side of his Rick Dias' torso. The weapon severs several cables, impeding the function of the suit's right leg and sending showers of sparks throughout the core of the massive weapon of war.

Jacob boosts to the side, tearing his wounded suit off the blade and leaving a gaping hole in the side as the beam saber tears through the armor. He slams on the brakes as it were, jamming on the verniers that will kill his forward momentum. At the same time, he twists his suit back the other direction, swinging his left arm to throw the elbow of the MS at Wolf's Beam Launcher.

The hatch on the top of the Rick Dias' head opens and Jacob jams down the trigger, sending an unrelenting stream of vulcan fire at the Marasai with the special paint job.

[mcred23]

- The Shoal Zone -

The Hizack caught the beams and exploded in what seemed like slow motion to Eddie. He was far enough away, but the other Rick Dias wasn't. The scream told Eckardy who it was, but before he could get to Michiko, Fritz' blue Rick Dias arrived on the spot and Eckardy's comm cracked. "You! Find the Nemo that was with us and tell him to fall back," Fritz yelled through the Minovsky-induced jamming.

"Right-oh." Eckardy said in his usual tone, doubting Fritz had paid any attention to him. He kicked his thrusters to full and rocketed foward, roughly toward the Musais had been, his sensors had reported the pink Nemo Fritz' referred to.

And it wasn't hard to find, nor did it take long. The battered machine was now little more than a torso with a leg, and both of those were battered. Eckardy moved his Rick Dias, grabbing and stopping the Nemo with his unit's left arm. It took a moment to fully stop the runaway pink thing, but he got it, and then started moving back toward the fleet with the Nemo under his arm. He waited a moment before calling the Nemo via skin talk. "You okay in there?" He asked almost casually.

[Ascension]

Jim grinned as the Marasai pilot tried to get behind him again. This fellow was pretty dense for a Titan.

"Suits from the old war could turn round about in a matter of seconds. If I don't see you, you can get behind me, but performing such an obvious maneuver right in front of me... you've got to be kidding."

He spun round, tracking the Marasai through its maneuver and parrying its slash with his saber.

"If I keep shooting at you from this range I'm gonna hit something eventually..." he muttered, squeezing off another beam pistol shot.

It was just then the smug pilot got hit by a bolt from out of nowhere and suddenly found himself missing a left arm.

After the initial startle reaction, he let out a sheepish little chuckle.

"Ehh... what was I just saying about when you don't see the guy behind you? Time to get the deck out of hodge..."

He boosted away as fast as the Dias's thrusters could carry him, spamming his beam pistol and vulcans in an attempt to discourage pursuit. His only concern was getting back to the Dervish alive.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Inside The Shoal Zone -

- The Dervish -
- Hangar -

A mechanic was waiting for Fritz after his cockpit creaked open. Fritz pushed off the Dias’ shoulder to float across to Michiko’s suit and curtly directed, “I need fuel,”. Sager was helping the JG out of her seat when Fritz landed. “I’m fine, Chief, really,” she said as she stepped out and took her helmet off. Fritz ran his hand through his damp hair and sighed, “That’s, ah, good to hear...”. Sager coughed and interrupted their silence. “Michi’s Dias has had it. Looks like you’re getting refueled. Is it still that thick out there?” the mechanic asked, shaking his head. Fritz frowned and looked around the hangar. “Has Ltjg. Angelina come and gone already?” he asked.

- Bridge -

“Lower! Take us lower!” Abbey yelled at Wade as he pointed across space at the Zomel. Wade understood what the captain had in mind while he watched the Musai advance, and he quicky adjusted the Dervish’s thrusters to make the big ship ‘drop altitude’ and orient on a lower heading in relation to the Zeon. In his peripheral vision, the captain noticed Gates stirring in his seat as he reached for the phone to contact the gunnery crews.

“If we move far enough below their main guns’ minimum elevation, we’ll cripple any hope they have for an effective attack on us as we pass...”

[Wedge14]

When Heyden had the Musai explode on him. His cockpit was greeted by numerous warning lights and alarm sirens. The pilot's first impulse was to disconnect the alarm computer from the power source. But the pilot's gusto had caused him to make an error and disconnect the whole cockpit.

Sitting in darkness he ignited his lighter for some light, and helped himself to the cigarette he had tucked behind his ear.

A brief moment later he had either hit some debris very softly or a retrieval team was already after him. Heyden calmly took a drag from his smoke and fiddle with the pistol on his belt.

The tinny and distant voice from whatever had collected his nemo had called out to him. The voice sounded calm more likely or not it was an ally.

Heyden grinned.

"Never been better."

[wonton bob]

- The Dervish -
- Hangar -

Bernard's lethargy evaporates as he remembers his rescuer. The object he was grasping is placed back in his ankle hostler. Bernard notices that two Rick Dias had just arrived recently on the other side of the Hanger. With several small kicks he approaches the pilots who are in discussion with a mechanic.

"Hey you." Bernard barked.

As he drew near, only then he noticed they were officers. When Bernard landed he stood at attention, as much as his bandaged leg would allow him. He directed his question to the leading officer, Fritz.

"Ah, sorry sirs.. there was a kid in the Hi-Nemo going up against three Zacks. Any word on him?"